Replacement flyhalf Luka Matkava, a 21-year-old playing his second international, became an instant national hero when he landed a 77th-minute penalty to earn Georgia a 13-12 victory over Wales on Saturday in the greatest moment of their rugby history.
Welsh rugby faces a period of introspection following a historic 13-12 loss to Georgia.
Photo: Ben Evans/Huw Evans Agency
Having beaten Italy earlier in the year for their first win over a Tier One country, it was a stunning result for Georgia, who will face Wales again in the World Cup next year.
“Our second win over a Tier One nation this year — we’ve proved a lot of people wrong,” said captain Merab Sharikadze, who also voiced his frustration at his team’s lack of opportunities.
“We want to continue this — we made history today. We’re not the team people think we are. WeG��ve beaten world-class teams and World Rugby needs to pay more attention to us and a lot of people need to be thinking that something has to change.”
Wales led 12-3 at halftime via two Jac Morgan tries midway through the half but the conversion was the last points they managed.
Georgia defended brilliantly, grew in confidence and strength as their big bench added real power, and, after an Alexander Todue try, won it with Matkava’s testing kick.
It sparked wild scenes of celebration among the Georgians. “We feel so proud. I am proud of the team and all the Georgian people in rugby,” said man-of-the-match scrumhalf Vasil Lobzhanidze
“We all believed we could win, from the first minute to the last. We’ve made history. We are so proud of ourselves.”
Wales had the best of the early exchanges but struggled to run their possession into dangerous situations. Eventually flanker Morgan peeled round the blindside from a lineout with a neat sidestep for the first try after 21 minutes.
Three minutes later he got a second and though the crowd settled back for more, it proved the high-water mark of their day.
Winger Josh Adams, back in the side after breaking his hand, thought he had a third after chasing his own kick from halfway but it was chalked off for a forward pass, leaving Wales 12-3 up at the break.
The third quarter followed a similar pattern to the first as Wales had much of the possession but looked unstructured and rarely entered the 22 in the face of some committed Georgian defence.
They then lost winger Alex Cuthbert to the sin bin after a dangerous aerial challenge and Georgia took full advantage, building up some pressure before Tedo Abzhandadze kicked into acres of space for Todue to collect and score after an hour.
Abzhandadze added the conversion to his earlier penalty to bring it back to 12-10 but then missed with another kickable penalty as the Georgians enjoyed a long spell of dominance.
Wales finally roused themselves but a third try for Morgan was ruled out for a knock-on and it was the visitors who surged again to earn the all-important scrum penalty.
GǣWe hoped to put more tempo into the game but all credit to Georgia, they did well in the set piece and came out on top,” said Wales captain Justin Tipuric.
“It is a blow, we can’t hide it, especially with Georgia coming up in the World Cup, but we just have to bounce back against Australia next week.”
SOUTH AFRICA BEAT ITALY
South Africa turned on the second-half heat as they ran in a total of nine tries in a dominant 63-21 win over Italy in their test at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Saturday.
The Springboks scored seven tries after the break as they wore down their hosts with relentless forward play to post their first win on their autumn tour, after losing narrowly in Ireland and France over the last weeks.
Kurt Lee Arendse scored two tries and there was one each for Bongi Mbonambi, Cheslin Kolbe, Kwagga Smith, Malcolm Marx, Steven Kitshoff, Damian Willemse and Cobus Reinach with Kolbe adding two penalties and a conversion and his replacement Manie Libbok kicking over five conversions.
Italy’s two tries were scored by Ange Capuozzo and Lorenzo Cannone, with Tomasso Allan putting over three penalties and a conversion.
The home side were brought back down to earth after their upset win over Australia last week but trailed by only five points at the break as they matched the tourists in an even first half, backed by a noisy crowd.
South Africa had taken an early lead when winger Arendse went over inside the opening five minutes but Capuozzo enhanced his growing reputation with a jinxing try as Italy took the lead and stayed ahead until the half-hour mark when Mbonambi went over after a typical Springbok maul and had the world champions five points clear at the break.
Allan reduced that led to two points early in the second half with a penalty but Kolbe grabbed the restart out of the air and ran through to score, turning the tide of the game.
Tries then followed quickly for Arendse, Smith and Marx as the Boks moved 42-16 clear before Italian loose forward Cannone halved the deficit on the hour mark.
But there was still time for Kitshoff, Willemse and Reinach to score, the last one unselfishly set up by Arendse who could have got a hat-trick of his own.
SCOTLAND BEAT ARGENTINA
Darcy Graham scored a hat-trick of tries but it was Scotland’s standoff Finn Russell who ran the show and delivered a reminder of his match-winning prowess as they beat a 14-man Argentina 52-29 in a tempestuous test at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Russell had been initially left out of the squad for the autumn internationals by coach Gregor Townsend, with his test career looking at an end, but suddenly brought back in an injury crisis and immediately restored to the line-up against New Zealand last week and again for the clash against Argentina.
His line breaks and clever passes set up Sione Tuipulotu’s 11th minute try, a second for Duhan van der Merwe 13 minutes later and one for Graham almost straight after as Russell imposed himself on the game.
It continued in the second half as Scotland went onto outscore Argentina eight tries to four, with Graham scoring two more, Tuipulotu getting a second, and Cameron Redpath and Stuart Hogg adding their names to the list of scorers.
Russell’s boot was also accurate with six conversions.
But Scotland’s winning cause was greatly helped by the 22nd minute sending off of Argentine loose forward Marcos Kremer, leaving the visitors a man down for almost an hour.
They were also handed three yellow cards in the second half G�� two of them within 30 seconds of each other as both locks Matias Alemanno and Tomas Lavanini were sent to the sin bin, leaving them down to 12 men.
Later, Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie and Argentina prop Thomas Gallo were yellow carded for fighting as tempers boiled over.
Jeronimo de la Fuente scored Argentina’s first try in the 15th minute and Alemanno the second, not long after Kremer’s dismissal. Emiliano Boffelli, who kicked a penalty and three conversions, added a remarkable break try when Argentina were down to 12 players in the second half.
Argentina, who beat England in the first of their three November tests but lost to Wales last week, also got a consolation try through Ignacio Ruiz as Argentina kept driving forward for seven minutes past the final hooter.
-Reuters
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